Exemplary embodiments relate to a brush seal assembly, and more particularly, to a brush seal assembly which seals a gap between a diaphragm and a rotor of a turbine.
A turbine is a power generation apparatus which converts heat energy of a fluid like gas, steam, or the like into a torque which is mechanical energy and includes a rotor which has a plurality of buckets to rotate as a shaft by the fluid and a casing which is installed to enclose a circumference of the rotor and is provided with a plurality of diaphragms.
A gas turbine may be configured to include a compressor, a combustor, and a turbine, in which the compressor rotates to suck and compress external air and then deliver the compressed air to the combustor which mixes the compressed air with fuel to perform combustion. High-temperature and high-pressure gas which is generated from the combustor rotates the rotor of the turbine while passing through the turbine to drive a power generator.
In the case of a steam turbine, a high pressure turbine, an intermediate pressure turbine, and a low pressure turbine are connected to one another in series or in parallel to rotate the rotor. When the high pressure turbine, the intermediate pressure turbine, and the low pressure turbine have a serial structure, the high pressure turbine, the intermediate pressure turbine, and the low pressure turbine may share one rotor.
In the steam turbine, each turbine includes the diaphragm and the bucket based on the rotor inside the casing and rotates the rotor while steam passing through the diaphragm and the bucket to drive the power generator.
The gas turbine and the steam turbine has a structure in which a rotating body (for example, rotor) relatively rotates with respect to a fixing body (for example, diaphragm), and therefore the high-temperature and high-pressure gas may be leaked to the gap between the fixing body and the rotating body. The fluid leakage is one cause of reduction in efficiency due to a power loss.
Efforts to reduce the fluid leakage occurring between the rotating body and the fixing body have been continuously conducted.
To reduce the fluid leakage, there is a need to reduce the gap between the fixing body and the rotating body, but there are restrictions in making the gap narrow.
For example, in the case in which the gap is excessively narrow, an interference may occur between the rotating body and the fixing body when the rotating body rotates and thus vibrations occurs due to rubbing, which leads to a serious damage to the turbine.